Power theft as a job

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tek9

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Location
Australia
When I worked in Britain in 1976 repairing colour tvs,,got an electric bill for 10 bucks,this American chick,who I later married, told me,here the meters are all inside,this is what yall do,know what 'm sayin,Mr Wallaby,she used a dremel to drill thru the glass face of the meter,then an nylon alignment tool to lift the disk off the geartrain,2 days fore the meter man comes round we pull em all out,checked the 40 meters on the panel,every one had a knitting needle or something like that fitted.Today with smart meters the SAS and 20 cops would probably arrive in Apache gunships and pour 30mm auto cannon and hellfire missiles into the joint.Apparently every resident took turns to bung the meter man a few quid to turn a blind eye.
 
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Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
For a while, I was subscribed to the Indian Institution of Electrical Engineers and got the magazine. It had some quite interesting articles.
There was one on the theft of structural steel from the pylons for overhead transmission lines. I recall one picture of a row of them leaning over at different angles like a row of drunken soldiers.
 

tek9

Member *
Location
Australia
Yeah,in Lahore friends of us saw the remains of a monkey that was electrocuted on 6.6kV lines strung on little poles like TV antennas from chimneys on the sides of houses,3 evil looking cats were fighting over the remains that fell off the transformer mounted on the pole.
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
When I worked in Britain in 1976 repairing colour tvs,,got an electric bill for 10 bucks,this American chick,who I later married, told me,here the meters are all inside,this is what yall do,know what 'm sayin,Mr Wallaby,she used a dremel to drill thru the glass face of the meter,then an nylon alignment tool to lift the disk off the geartrain,2 days fore the meter man comes round we pull em all out,checked the 40 meters on the panel,every one had a knitting needle or something like that fitted.Today with smart meters the SAS and 20 cops would probably arrive in Apache gunships and pour 30mm auto cannon and hellfire missiles into the joint.Apparently every resident took turns to bung the meter man a few quid to turn a blind eye.
When I was a college student back in the 70's a former roommate of mine discovered he could break the seal on the meter in such a way that it would only be detectable by yanking on it, which allowed him to pull the meter and restab it upside down, which would make it run backwards. He would do this and turn on every appliance in his apartment for a couple of days and thereby greatly reduce his electric bill. One time, however, he forgot and left things in this state while he left town for the weekend and ran the meter too far back so that when the meter reader came by the reading was negative. He is lucky he did not go to jail.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
When I was a college student back in the 70's a former roommate of mine discovered he could break the seal on the meter in such a way that it would only be detectable by yanking on it, which allowed him to pull the meter and restab it upside down, which would make it run backwards. He would do this and turn on every appliance in his apartment for a couple of days and thereby greatly reduce his electric bill. One time, however, he forgot and left things in this state while he left town for the weekend and ran the meter too far back so that when the meter reader came by the reading was negative. He is lucky he did not go to jail.
Almost the same story with a friend of mine, except it was the meter reader who came and saw it. He called me up and asked what was gonna happen, I told him he was going to be saying "yes sir" alot and to just take what they give him. They asked how long he had owned the house (10 years) and then went and looked at the previous owners electrical usage for 10 more years. Wasn't to bad, I think it only cost him $1500.
 

shamsdebout

Senior Member
Location
Macon,GA
Some of these people take some serious risks. I think one power company was going to invest in some "thief-proof" conductors that would trip the circuit whenever someone dropped a connecting wire to run power to a remote location. Supposedly these conductors would be very sensitive. Not sure how that turned out.

I have seen some use a ring or hook on one end of a bare wire and route it hundreds of feet to a remote location. Pretty crazy how they do it. They are going from the distribution line, not even at the meter, crazy stuff.
 
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